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Trump appeasement a global recipe for political defeat: Harper

The U.S. president looms in every election on the planet and will do so here in 2019.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has more at stake on climate, trade and other U.S. policies than European leaders for a simple reason of geographical proximity.
But Trump appeasement is toxic. Ask Theresa May, writes Tim Harper. (Andrew Medichini / The Associated Press file photo)

It is a caution for all politicians — including Canadian politicians — who must deal with U.S. President Donald Trump, the world’s oversized, real life, strutting and spewing campaign issue anywhere a vote is sought.

When they met Tuesday in Paris, May’s future was sketchy at best, her hold on government reduced to seeking support from a party that opposes same-sex marriage and abortion and is at least skeptical about climate change, while parrying calls for her ouster from within her Conservative party.

Macron has remade French politics, riding a newly formed centrist party to power, poised to sweep parliamentary elections this weekend, bringing with him hundreds of political neophytes set to make history.

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No doubt, there are many reasons for these two leaders passing each other on the roller coaster.

But one should not downplay the influence of Trump on their respective fates, because his presence muscles its way onto every playing field. He will, if he survives, be a factor in our election in 2019.

Those who resist taking a strong, vocal stand against the man do so at their own peril, and that trend seems certain to merely accelerate the longer he is in office.

May, the first foreign leader to meet Trump at the White House, was widely derided in the British media for holding hands with the U.S. president — who also patronizingly patted her hand — as they strolled out of their meeting to take questions.

She later said the hand-holding demonstrated Trump was a gentleman.

She immediately invited Trump to the United Kingdom on a state visit, a visit now reportedly on hold because Trump fears large, hostile demonstrations.

When Trump pulled out of the Paris accord on climate change, May refused to join France, Germany and Italy in signing a declaration stating the accord could not be renegotiated.

In her campaign’s waning days she showed a curious reticence to criticize Trump for his aggressive, out-of-context tweets attacking London mayor Sadiq Khan after the most recent terror attack in that city.

Resurgent Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn showed no such hesitation, praising Khan and communities for their strength, something “which the current occupant in the White House has neither the grace nor the sense to grasp.”

Meanwhile, at the NATO summit last month, Macron and Trump engaged in a white-knuckle death grip handshake for the cameras, with the French leader refusing to look submissive as the president launched one of the macho handlocks he uses to project power.

“One must show that we won’t make little concessions, even symbolic ones,” Macron said later.

When Trump abandoned the Paris accord, Macron addressed the world in English, inviting American climate researchers to France, telling Trump there is no Plan B and mocking him with a call to “make our planet great again.”

To be sure, not every plan to get tough with Trump is going to work.

Soon-to-be former B.C. Premier Christy Clark told voters she wasn’t going to be “a sucker for Donald Trump” and threatened to ban coal exports originating from the U.S. from her ports.

That was retaliation for Trump’s punitive duties on British Columbia softwood lumber.

The threat put pressure on the Justin Trudeau government, which essentially shelved Clark’s request during the provincial campaign.

Clark may have seen the virtue of running against Trump, but voters there didn’t buy it and Clark’s government is expected to fall on a confidence motion later this month.

It should be noted that Trudeau has denied the report, and his office is seeking a correction from the magazine, but in a globally read media outlet he is accused of “appeasement” of Trump on climate change.

It quotes Trudeau telling German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the Paris accord could be struck from a G20 communiqué being crafted for that summit early next month.

Merkel was seeking to isolate Trump on climate change.

Trudeau was said to be fearful of “provoking” Trump.

Trudeau has more at stake on climate, trade and other U.S. policies than European leaders for a simple reason of geographical proximity.

But Trump appeasement is toxic.

Ask Theresa May.

If Trump ever visits the U.K., the woman who invited him might not be there to greet him.

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